A Tell of Love

Text:

Hosea 3:1–4 AV

Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

Themes:

Love

Faithfulness

Mercy

Lovingkindness

Grace

Repentance

Redemption

I. Go Marry a Prostitute (Chapter 1)

a. The Lord tells Hosea to marry a prostitute (Hosea 1:2)

This was something that was appalling to the Israelites. The Israelites looked to Hosea as being a holy man, and he takes to himself a prostitute who would later become unfaithful to him.

The Israelites needed an illustration of how unfaithful they had been to the LORD.

The Israelites played the spiritual harlot by turning from the LORD and worshipping other gods. They didn’t worship one God, they didn’t leave Yahweh to serve a singular god, but they left Yahweh and worshipped many other gods.

Marriage is suppose to reflect the relationship that God has with his people.

Hosea takes Gomer, this prostitute and makes her his wife and the Bible says that she conceives and brings forth a son. God tells Hosea to name the child Jezreel. She again conceives and brings forth a daughter and The LORD tells Hosea to name her Lo-ruhamah which means “I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will take her utterly away.” See, God was sending a warning before destruction hit. He was giving them a chance to repent, but they refused to repent. Once again, Gomer conceives and brings forth another son and God tells Hosea name him “Lo-ammi” which means “you are not my people, and I will not be your God.”

But then God says something very interesting “Yet....the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there is shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”

Even in Israel’s unfaithfulness God is still faithful. By right, he could have destroyed them, He could have casted them off forever, but despite of their unfaithfulness God remains faithful. What does it mean that God is faithful? It means that God full of love and compassion, it means that God is gracious.....God is still good to us even when we don’t deserve it. Does that mean there won’t be any recompense? No....when a person fails to repent God has to discipline us to get us back on the right track. However, God is merciful and full of compassion.

Example: The Israelites when they came out of Egypt had just finished worshipping the Golden Calf, matter of fact while they were in the act of doing it God told Moses in Exodus 34:6 “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.” In other-words even when we do wrong.....God will always do good, God will always be good, God will hold off his judgement for us to get ourselves together, God will have mercy on us, and in times we know that we deserve great punishment but yet God spares us. I need to take a moment to just express to God my appreciation for his lovingkindness to me, his endure patience that he has bestowed upon me. How could you not live for God, how could you not serve the Lord, how could you not give God praise and glory for being so good to you even when you didn’t deserve it. GOD IS FAITHFUL EVEN WHEN WE ARE NOT FAITHFUL!!!

II. The Prostitute and Her Unfaithfulness.

a. Hosea takes this prostitute, to take means that marriage arrangements were made. A sum of money was paid to the brides father to marry his daughter. Now if she was not a virgin, she wasn’t worth a lot of money and in most instances back then the future groom would back out of the marriage agreement. In other-words, because of her whoredoms, she didn’t deserve to be married.....but Hosea takes her to be his wife anyhow. Hosea is good to this woman, it is highly likely that this woman had children of her own prior to being married to Hosea because of her occupation. Hosea, takes care of this woman, provides for her and her children, provides for their children they had together, put a roof of her head, put food on the table for them, provides protection and companionship. Then, after all Hosea does for her, this woman leaves him and returns back to the same thing that Hosea had rescued her from! She was unfaithful to Hosea as good as Hosea had been to her. She left him, because in our text this morning in chapter 3 God says to Hosea (verse1) “Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.” She had to leave Hosea for God to say “Go yet, love a woman”.

b. I know some of us are thinking in our mind “this woman is a trip, she’s not a good person, that’s a shame she did him like that” but God was showing Israel how unfaithful they were to Him and if the truth be known some of us are in the exact situation! GOD has been good to us, God has watched over us, God has provided for us, God has protected us, and after all God has done for us we are not faithful to God as we should be! WE ARE NOT FAITHFUL LIVING FOR GOD, WE ARE NOT FAITHFUL IN SERVING GOD, WE ARE NOT FAITHFUL IN OUR SERVICE TO GOD, WE HAVE PUT OTHER PRIORITIES IN FRONT OF GOD!!! WE ARE MORE FAITHFUL TO OUR JOBS THAN WE ARE TO GOD BECAUSE WE GO TO WORK EVERYDAY BUT WON’T SHOW UP FOR CHURCH on Sundays and you can forget about Wednesday Nights. Some of us have gotten so comfortable watching church at home and we blame our attendance on the coronavirus, but you’re still going to work, you’re still going to the grocery store, you’re still in public with people that don’t have masks on and that are not vaccinated. We are more faithful to our houses than we are God, we are more faithful to our homes than we are God, we are more faithful to ourselves than we are GOD!!!!

c. This woman left the house.....this woman left the house and returned back to playing the harlot. Israel left God and begin to worship other false gods. Now watch this, in their eyes.....they didn’t leave God....because they thought that they were worshipping Yahweh. What happened is that their worship got contaminated and mixed with the practices and beliefs of the heathen false gods that they were serving. There were some aspects of Baal and Asherah worship that were similar to the worship of Yahweh and so they thought that they could mix them together. They thought that they could do their thing and worship God all at the same time. They thought that they could live like and do what their heathen neighbors were doing and serve God all the same time.....but when they thought they were still in God with God, God says “you left me for other gods”. Anything you place in front of God has become your idol.

III. The Results of Her Unfaithfulness.

a. She is no longer my wife (2:1-2)

God speaks to the children who have been forsaken by their mother. Plead with your mother, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband.

In other-words all of the blessings and benefits of being a wife, provision, protection, communion. You left me and now those blessings and benefits are annulled.

b. Remove the prostitutes makeup or I will strip her naked (2:2-4)

In other-words, return back home, return to your husband and stop playing the prostitute or I will strip you naked. There were two punishments for adultery, the husband could have his wife stoned to death or the lesser punishment was to be stripped naked. Not only was this a huge embarrassment but it was symbolic for being stripped over all of the benefits that the husband provided for the wife. It was a low point....a very low point. God says if you don’t repent.....I’m going to strip you and bring you to a low point.

(2:God said I’ll make her like a wilderness, like a dry land, and I will leave her to die of thirst. You’re children will suffer.....not the children born of Hosea, but the children she bore before she was married, because she left and played the harlot, by law, the husband is not required to take care or provide for them.

c. She was a shameless prostitute, she sold herself to them for food and water, wool and linen.

She said I will go to other lovers, I’ll find someone that will take care of me, that will do for me, I’ll find someone else I can commune with. Israel, because they left God, they started to depend on the heathen nations around them....the very ones God told them to cut off and not have anything to do with them.

Sometimes when people leave God, they start depending on other things to fill that void that is left there. They look for love and acceptance in other places, they turn to substances and other vices to try and fill that void.

God said, I’m going to fence her in with thornbushes and block her path so that she lose her way. When she runs after her lovers, she won’t be able to catch them. God will put you in a place that when you run to others seeking help....no one will be able to help you.

d. God will cut her off, not for retaliation, but to make her think about her ways and return to the Lord.

God said eventually when she sees the state that she is in, when she realizes that no one else can help me. She will say “I might as well return to my husband, for I was better off with him than I am now.”

God says “For she did not know, that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold.” God is the one that has been blessing you all along, God is the one that has been making ways for you. You’re going and depending on other sources, but you don’t realize that God has been doing all along! The LORD says, I gave her these gifts but then she took them and gave all my gifts to Baal. Everything I’ve given you, you didn’t bless me, you didn’t praise me for it, you didn’t live a life of gratitude towards me, but you’ve taken what I’ve given you and you’ve lived for the other guy. You’ve taken what I’ve given you and worshipped yourself, you’ve taken what I’ve given you and worshipped the boss or the job.

(verse 9) The Lord says, but now everything that I’ve given you, I’m taking it all back. I’m going to strip her naked in front of all her lovers, I’m going to bring an end to her good times, to her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths and solemn feasts.

IV. The LORD Will Redeem.

a. But then I will win her back.

The Lord says I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and while she is there I will speak comfortably unto her. When you are unfaithful to God and you remain unfaithful God judgement will eventually come against you. But then He’ll bring you into the wilderness, the place of solitude, the place of bareness, and He’ll begin to speak tenderly to you there.

He’ll wait until you hit rock bottom but then remind you of how much He loves you. Why because God is a faithful God.

b. I will restore everything back.

c. In that day you will call me husband instead of master.

V. The Wife Is Redeemed.

a. Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress.

b. The Lord still loves Israel even though they had been unfaithful.

c. I bought her back with 15 pieces of silver and five bushels of barley, and a measure of wine (struggle to pay for redemption).

d. A time of purification.

e. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the LORD and of his goodness.